Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

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Roger

 
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Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

by Roger » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:46 am

This is the latest re these guesthouses

Dr Werner Weiglein is leading the cause though it may not be apparent.

He lives in Berlin and it seems the Papuan Governor spends a lot of time there promoting Werners projects. Werner will control all access to this facility

I have it on good authority that there will be a new route opened to Puncak Jaya via Tsinga, its been planned for some time and will involve villagers specifically from Tsinga Village. They will greatly benefit its hoped. The route to PJ will come in via a northerly route and has been mapped out. It will be just a short flight from the Freeport airport at Timika. It is then only 12 kilometres to PJ via old trails.

The locals with the assistance of Freeport Social and Local Development department are now in the process of learning how to run this type of program and learn about mountaineering and develop homestays. I have seen the route maps for this. It will be interesting to see if Werner has a strong influence on this local community, keeping in mind the vast amounts of money he is currently earning taking large groups to PJ. His investment is large and upkeep of the Papuan Governor is not cheap with all that business travel to Berlin.

Dr. Werner Weiglein is chairman of the German-Indonesian society in Frankfurt. By the edict of the Indonesian President of State he disposes of the right of residence for life in Indonesia.


Cartenz Summit Tourism Development

Home Stays Will be Build This Year

TIMIKA - The Mimika Regional Government is taking part in the development of the Carstenz summit as a tourist destination. One of the programs it will be engaged in with the Papua Government is the building of home stays with accompanying facilities that would attract tourists.

The head of the Youth, Sports, Culture and Tourism Office for the Mimika regency Adolf Halley recently told Radar Timika contractors have already submitted the building plans for homestays and have received approval from PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) to transport the building materials. Freeport approval is a prime requirement as materials must be moved across their area of operations.

"It must cross the open mining area, before it can be moved up to the Carstenz. Means of transportation by chopper or by manpower are under discussion," Adolf said.

He added promotion of the Carstenz summit as a tourist destination is not only done locally but also abroad. As a starter will be a presentation on the Carstenz summit given by the Governor of Papua in Berlin.

The agenda for this has already been submitted to the Bupati of Mimika Klemen Tinal. Adolf was asked to prepare all documentation related to the Carstenz summit.

Deputy Bupati, Abdul Muis ST MM, said the presentation and the promotion will take place in Berlin from March 7-27. Here foreign audiences will learn there is also snow in the tropics.

Another supporting facility to promote the location is the Tsinga airport. Built by PTFI the airport project will be officially opened on March 23. Another supporting factor is the land route from Jila to the snowcapped summit.

In an effort to develop the location as a tourist destination the Mimika regional government is working in coordination with the provincial government because it concerns a provincial program although the Carstenz summit is located in the regency of Mimika.

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by Alpinist » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:31 pm

I don't know whether Dr Werner Weiglein's involvement is good or bad but generally speaking, I think it's great that they are finally trying to attract climbers. Carstensz has been too unsafe and unstable in the past for me to consider it. I've been waiting for precisely this kind of stability before I would take a trip there.

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Roger

 
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by Roger » Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:03 am

Alpinist wrote:I don't know whether Dr Werner Weiglein's involvement is good or bad but generally speaking, I think it's great that they are finally trying to attract climbers. Carstensz has been too unsafe and unstable in the past for me to consider it. I've been waiting for precisely this kind of stability before I would take a trip there.


Sorry to burst your bubble but the Indonesian Military is still killing expats and West Papuans there. Just a couple of weeks ago another Freeport vehicle was shot up and an expat lost his vision after medivac to Singapore. The National guys were injured and transported to Jakarta.
This was within a few miles of the mining town of Hidden Valley at Mile 63. The Freeport road is closed to cars with staff flow in via Kamov hevilift choppers from Timika Airport (Freeport owned, built and operated) to Tembagapura helipad at Mile 66.

Dont get your hopes up just yet. I hope you can get there one day as its just an unbelievable part of the world if you also take time to explore the mountains around Puncak Jaya, most dont however, just in and out to bag one of the seven summits.
Puncak Trikora, the second highest mountain near Wamena is a good trek/climb also and much safer. Not to hard to get there also.

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by Alpinist » Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:44 pm

Change won't happen overnight. It would be foolish to expect that. However, I like the direction they are going. The creation of the hut, the new approach route, and a more streamlined permit process should make future trips much safer. This is exactly what was needed there. How it will ultimately play out is anybodys guess but I expect that things will improve.

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by Alpinist » Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:15 pm

Interesting report from the Papua province.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6569

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by Alpinist » Tue Jul 06, 2010 3:32 pm

Scientists predict that the Papua glacier will disappear in five years.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/papua-glacier-disappear-in-five-years-3624079

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by Damien Gildea » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:24 am

They refer to it as the 'only glacier ... in the western Pacific'. Yet New Zealand is in the western Pacific. And New Zealand is full of glaciers. And the article is from New Zealand.

Does being in the south Pacific mean you can't be in the western Pacific? Pretty much everything I see on a quick web search includes New Zealand in the western Pacific. The demarcations are the 180 line of longitude for east and west and the equator for north and south.

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by Alpinist » Wed Jul 07, 2010 4:26 pm

No doubt, they were considering New Zealand as part of the South Pacific when they wrote that. Such miscategorizations are not uncommon. Here in the US, when people refer to "the South", they generally mean the Southeastern states. The Southwest is implicitly excluded from that term even though those states are just are far south.

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by Mountain Bandit » Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:47 pm

Yeah the situation is a little frustrating considering that this part of the world is one of the most spectacular in the world for hiking/climbing.

Having just climbed the highest mountain in PNG (Mt Wilhelm – 4509m) I’ve experienced similar hostilities. Different in the fact that PNG has little (some people even doubt if any) military presence. Tribal influence seems to be the main influence there.

We climbed Wilhelm via the more difficult ‘traverse’ route (the vast majority climb just up and down from Kegsugl), which covers a lot of distance (3 provinces in fact). We couldn’t get a single group of guides to guide us over the mountain as they are ‘not allowed’ into other tribes’ regions – It’s a pretty complicated system which we didn't understand ourselves. In fact the three strongest men that climbed to the summit with us actually stopped 50m short of the summit because apparently the summit marks the exact boundary of two provinces.

Well don’t let all this talk deter you from going to the area – it was one of the more rewarding experiences in my life. You learn a lot about life, living on the land and survival up there with the natives, not to mention seeing some of the most spectacular scenery in the world!

Paul.

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by radson » Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:21 pm

Mountain Bandit wrote:Yeah the situation is a little frustrating considering that this part of the world is one of the most spectacular in the world for hiking/climbing.

Having just climbed the highest mountain in PNG (Mt Wilhelm – 4509m) I’ve experienced similar hostilities. Different in the fact that PNG has little (some people even doubt if any) military presence. Tribal influence seems to be the main influence there.

We climbed Wilhelm via the more difficult ‘traverse’ route (the vast majority climb just up and down from Kegsugl), which covers a lot of distance (3 provinces in fact). We couldn’t get a single group of guides to guide us over the mountain as they are ‘not allowed’ into other tribes’ regions – It’s a pretty complicated system which we didn't understand ourselves. In fact the three strongest men that climbed to the summit with us actually stopped 50m short of the summit because apparently the summit marks the exact boundary of two provinces.

Well don’t let all this talk deter you from going to the area – it was one of the more rewarding experiences in my life. You learn a lot about life, living on the land and survival up there with the natives, not to mention seeing some of the most spectacular scenery in the world!

Paul.


Really enjoyed looking at your pictures Paul. Thanks for sharing.

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Re: Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

by mtnjim » Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:59 pm

So is there any news on the Tsinga route for Carstensz?

I'd like to get over that way this fall but I'm looking for something a little more affordable than the commercial prices I've seen.

i'm thinking about trying to schedule something either before or after the Kinabalu Climbathon October 22-23. That looks like a fun race.

The little bit of research I've done for the climb makes it look as though there's only one reliable commercial operator.

Any info, experience, suggestions appreciated.

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Re: Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

by Alpinist » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:08 pm

I just read that the Freeport mine has been closed over security concerns because of the worker strike. I wouldn't care to attempt Carstinez until the labor dispute is resolved. It's risky enough under normal conditions. Source.

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Re: Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

by ScottyP » Sat Oct 22, 2011 4:49 am

Allan Arnette just summited !

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Alpinist

 
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Re: Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid)

by Alpinist » Thu Nov 10, 2011 2:14 pm

That's awesome considering the social-political climate there!

Here's Alan's trip report.


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